Top 5 Confluence Macros I couldn't Wiki without

There are some macros that I regard almost as core functionality, macros that I don't know how I would use Confluence if they weren't available to me. Here's my top 5 macros, or sets of macros, that I couldn't be without:

1. Roundrect

My first one is the ??? macro - What doesn't look better inside of a roundrect? It's my go-to macro to quickly layout Confluence pages - whether I want to simply structure my page, highlight some important text, or segment a set of links, the roundrect macro helps me do this in a professional, modern looking way. It's a key part of our Content Formatting^[1] macros - available in the free Essentials Pack^[2] of Confluence plugins^[3].

2. Div/Span

My next ones are the ??? and ??? macros, which are also part of the content formatting macros. These are really handy as a way to wrap parts of pages in a custom CSS class, managed with our Confluence Theme^[4] tool (Theme Builder), to apply some custom styling to it. And apparently I'm not the only one who likes them either - one reviewer, Herbert Pelzer, says that he "can't imagine life without ??? or ???!"

3. Section/Column

OK, so these ones actually are core functionality - Atlassian's ??? and ??? layout macros. They provide a quick way to vertically align and format your pages and they're a great time saver too - they mean I don't have to wrestle with formatting Tables, if all I want is to break my text in to columns, add some structure to my page, or leave nice areas of white space around images or other page elements.

4. Advanced-search

The {advanced-search} macro allows you to include the results of Advanced Search configs^[5] in a page. I've written literally hundreds of Advanced Search^[6] configs in my time using Confluence. I've found them to be the best way to automatically include content from around the Wiki, in an efficient and scalable manner. Custom HTML/JavaScript, as well blog/RSS or other types of report macros have proved too difficult to style and don't perform well on popular, high-traffic pages.

5. Cache

My final one is a great complement to the {advanced-search} macro, as well as lots of other macros when using them on busy pages. Some macros can put a lot of strain on your system's resources, resulting in slow page loading times and poor user experience. Bob Swift's simple, yet hugely useful ???^[7] macro comes to the rescue - by storing a copy of the output of other macros, saving your system from having to generate that same output for each page visitor. It's a must for any Wiki with more than just a handful of users.

So there we have it - my favourite Confluence macros. Though it was tricky to keep it to just 5. I'd love to know if you agree and have any others you think are worth a mention - let me know via our community site^[8].

References

1. ^{^}Content Formatting (feedproxy.google.com)
2. ^{^}Essentials Pack (www.adaptavist.com)
3. ^{^}Our Confluence Plugins (feedproxy.google.com)
4. ^{^}Theme Builder (feedproxy.google.com)
5. ^{^}Advanced Search configs (www.adaptavist.com)
6. ^{^}Advanced Search (feedproxy.google.com)
7. ^{^}??? (studio.plugins.atlassian.com)
8. ^{^}community site (feedproxy.google.com)